1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to hunting knives, and specifically to an attachable device for adapting a hunting knife for skinning and field dressing operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the hunting of game animals such as deer, elk, and antelope, the field dressing and skinning of animals is generally carried out with specialized knives, such as so-called gutting knives. These knives feature rounded ends to avoid perforation of stomach, intestines, and other internal organs during the field dressing/skinning operations. Such perforation is undesirable because it imparts an unappealing taste to the meat of the game animal, and accelerates the spoiling of such meat. For similar reasons, it is desired in the field dressing/skinning operation to avoid unnecessary or excessive cutting penetration of the meat itself.
Although game hunters frequently carry conventional type single-bladed or double-bladed hunting knives, such hunting knives are not suitable for such skinning and field dressing operations due to the fact that the tip portion of the hunting knife blade is typically pointed in character. With such pointed-end blade configuration, the occurrence of undesirable cutting and/or perforation of the game meat and internal organs, with the attendant consequences above described, is highly probable, since it is difficult to rigorously control the depth of penetration of the knife blade so as to avoid such perforation and cutting.
Accordingly, where a hunting knife is carried by the hunter, it is frequently in addition to the aforementioned specialized skinning and field dressing knives.
It would therefore be a significant advance in the art to provide a hunting knife of a type which is usable in the conventional manner and with conventional blade characteristics, but is readily adapted to skinning and field dressing operation, without the aforementioned perforation and cutting difficulties associated with the pointed-end blade structure.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 275,360 to F. W. Child discloses a hand knife with a blade guard covering the tip and substantially the entire blade surface of a pointed blade, which is useful for storage and transport of the knife, but prevents the knife from being used while the blade guard is installed.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,255,930 to P. Jepson discloses a blade holder for razor blades in which the blade is adjustable to expose selected portions of the cutting surface of a standard, retangular form razor blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,241,236 to J. P. Capps discloses a game knife for skinning and dressing game animals, which features a regular knive blade edge used in the manner of a single-bladed hunting knife, and having a crescent-shaped end. The knife also features a blunt end guide which, as noted at Column 2, lines 4-14 of the patent, prevents damage to the inner organs of the animal during field dressing and skinning operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,466,898 to G. W. Johnson discloses a hand cutting tool with a resiliently held shield which automatically yields to expose the cutting edge when the cutting instrument is positioned against the surface of the material to be cut or marked. The user of the tool is protected against accidental contact by a shield of folded sheet metal shaped with two sides extending downwardly beyond the blade edges and held in place by a spring-and-pin assembly. By this assembly, the shield may be released to expose the cutting blade for inspection and sharpening. The guard is adapted to cover the entire blade surface of the cutting instrument, and is retracted during actual use.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a field dressing and skinning attachment for a hunting knife, which permits a conventional single-blade or double-blade hunting knife to be used in conventional manner when used for other than skinning and field dressing, but which is readily deployed to adapt such hunting knife to skinning and field dressing capability.
It is another object of the invention to provide a skinning and field dressing attachment of the above-mentioned type, which is easily and simply constructed, low in cost, and easily applied.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be more fully apparent from the ensuing disclosure and appended claims.